kavika411
Sep 12, 2007, 11:06 AM
Not trying to start a war, just a good conversation.
I'm curious whether there are any people like me - people who worshipped Radiohead back in the day, especially around the time of OK Computer, but who lost interest in them over the years. (For what it's worth, I've got all of their albums, singles and about a dozen bootlegs and have seen them live three or four times, as far back as The Bends tour.)
With Kid A, they were poised to take over the world; same with Amnesiac. Both were really good experimental albums yielding some amazing tracks, but with both albums it seemed like they were so hell-bent on doing something "different" that they erred on the side of art-for-art's-sake. Again, I like a lot of tracks on those albums - quite extraordinary, some of them - but overall I think they demonstrated they were tired of people's expectations; maybe that is good, maybe that is not.
Then came Hail to the Thief, an album for which they boasted that each song was recorded in a day - 14 songs, 14 days to record. Apparently, that tight schedule was supposed to impress us. The effect was an album that sounds like - well - it was recorded in 14 days. Again, I think they were artfully dodging their fans' high expectations.
In the meantime, they seem to liken themselves to the Beatles and Led Zeppelin in being too cool to release their albums on iTunes (although Radiohead did release a song to be used in an episode of - no joke - The O.C.) Likewise, they are too cool to sign with a label, hence their next album is being recorded at a snail's pace with no release date in 2007. 2008 will be five years - FIVE YEARS - since Hail to the Thief. New genres of music have come and gone in that period of time.
So, when the new album's release date comes out in mid-to-late 2008, will you be first in line at the record store like I used to, or will you - like me - yawn and wait for some objective (non-fanboy) reviews before giving Radiohead even more of your money?
I'm curious whether there are any people like me - people who worshipped Radiohead back in the day, especially around the time of OK Computer, but who lost interest in them over the years. (For what it's worth, I've got all of their albums, singles and about a dozen bootlegs and have seen them live three or four times, as far back as The Bends tour.)
With Kid A, they were poised to take over the world; same with Amnesiac. Both were really good experimental albums yielding some amazing tracks, but with both albums it seemed like they were so hell-bent on doing something "different" that they erred on the side of art-for-art's-sake. Again, I like a lot of tracks on those albums - quite extraordinary, some of them - but overall I think they demonstrated they were tired of people's expectations; maybe that is good, maybe that is not.
Then came Hail to the Thief, an album for which they boasted that each song was recorded in a day - 14 songs, 14 days to record. Apparently, that tight schedule was supposed to impress us. The effect was an album that sounds like - well - it was recorded in 14 days. Again, I think they were artfully dodging their fans' high expectations.
In the meantime, they seem to liken themselves to the Beatles and Led Zeppelin in being too cool to release their albums on iTunes (although Radiohead did release a song to be used in an episode of - no joke - The O.C.) Likewise, they are too cool to sign with a label, hence their next album is being recorded at a snail's pace with no release date in 2007. 2008 will be five years - FIVE YEARS - since Hail to the Thief. New genres of music have come and gone in that period of time.
So, when the new album's release date comes out in mid-to-late 2008, will you be first in line at the record store like I used to, or will you - like me - yawn and wait for some objective (non-fanboy) reviews before giving Radiohead even more of your money?
